It is only a matter of time before a virus that may have caused fish to internally bleed to death in parts of Lake Erie and Lake Huron spreads to Lake Michigan.
Officials at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, are currently working to stop viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS.
Although the virus does not affect people, if it remains untreated, there could be significant consequences for the environment and the economy, said Kelley Smith, chief of the state's DNR Fisheries Division.
"The testing does take time and it does cost money," Smith said. "There's going to be some nuances to put up with."
Large red spots can usually be seen on the heads of fish carrying the virus, DNR officials said.
"The worst case scenario is it really hits fish hard and the fish population falls," Smith said. "And that would affect the sports fishing industry."
The virus could have been introduced to the Great Lakes from the discharged water of large ships, said Dave Dempsey, Great Lakes policy adviser for Clean Water Action. The virus highlights the need to "require standards of treatment" for vessels entering the Great Lakes, Dempsey said.
To slow the spread of the disease, DNR officials are proposing regulations that require wholesale bait dealers to test for the virus before selling their products.
They are urging anglers and boaters to discharge vessel water before entering another body of water and to wash their fishing equipment before using it elsewhere.
Although Michigan has banned boats discharging untreated water, other states haven't followed suite, Dempsey said. That allows ships to discharge water in other parts of the Great Lakes or the St. Lawrence Seaway, putting the bodies of water at risk for VHS, he said.
Sen. Patty Birkholz, R-Saugatuck, chairs the Senate Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee, said the DNR's measures are a start, but will not completely solve the issue.
"We haven't been able to eradicate an invasive species," Birkholz said. "We've been able to contain them at an extremely high cost."
A federal law requiring set standards for a ship's discharged water treatment is the only way to stop more viruses and invasive species from entering the Great Lakes, she said. The shipping industries' opposition to such a law makes that difficult, Birkholz said.
"They put a lot of pressure on other states not to enact a similar law," she said.
The threat of the virus has John Milbourne, owner of Michigan Sport Fishing, worried and has made him second-guess buying a new boat.
"It's got me real nervous," Milbourne said. "I'm not going to mortgage my future on something I don't know about."
A federal water treatment law is needed, Milbourne said.
"It's long overdue legislation," he said. "If we don't put anything in, we're not going to get anything back."
